1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to utility metering, and in particular to utility control, monitoring and conservation using real-time communication and feedback through comparative usage statistics.
2. Background Art
Usage measurement by utility providers is a routine process whereby utility providers seek to measure the usage of the commodity involved (e.g., water, gas, electricity) by each consumer. Consumers are then billed based on their usage at periodic times, typically monthly. Traditionally, usage was measured manually by utility workers who visited each point-of-use location and read the utility meter to ascertain the usage since the previous reading. In fact, the oldest style utility meters supported only visual reading. Such manual measurements posed a variety of issues, such as the time and cost of visiting every meter each month, obtaining access to each meter during difficult weather conditions, as well as the cost of human error in reading the meters and the resulting public relations consequences.
The next generation meters, known as automatic meter reading (“AMR”) devices, were designed to offset the above manual meter reading issues. AMR devices permit automated or semi-automated reading of meters as an alternative to having the utility workers physically access every meter each month. Various technologies are used for AMR meter readings including radio and powerline networking links. By using these various technologies to remotely read every meter, the cost of human access and human error are substantially reduced. For example, utility workers can use handheld computers coupled with short range transceivers to remotely interrogate every meter from the street. The AMR approach avoids the need for the same level of physical access to each meter, automates the entry of each meter reading, and reduces the likelihood of reading and transcription errors.
More advanced AMR devices use electronic communication such that each meter device can communicate directly to the utility company computer systems, without the need for a utility worker to physically approach every meter each month. Such electronic communication takes the form of either wired or wireless communications. Wired communications includes telephone line connectivity, as well as power-line communications to forward the usage data back to the utility company computers. Wireless communications includes the use of radio frequencies (RF) and other suitable high frequencies for data transmission to the utility company computers. The choice between wired and wireless communications is typically driven by density of meter locations in a given area, as well as by the existence of telephone wiring in the particular area.
Thus, in its various forms, AMR devices provide a more cost-effective and less error-prone approach to the routine collection of utility usage data. However, new utility challenges have arisen that expose the limitations of AMR devices. For example, the limited communications bandwidths used by AMR devices do not enable utility companies to readily receive usage data on a more frequent basis. As such, access to additional data such as usage over various times of the day at each location is thwarted by low bandwidth connectivity between each meter location and the utility company. Thus, the modern-day need for utility companies to better understand the usage profile of each customer demands receipt of real-time data, and thus a real-time communications protocol. In addition, the passage by Congress of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandates that each public utility regulator consider the provision of a time-based rate schedule. Time-based rate schedules provide utility commodities (e.g., electricity, water, gas) at variable prices during a 24-hour period, with higher prices being charged during peak loading periods. For a customer to be able to take advantage of time-based rate schedules, utilities are thereby challenged to provide advanced metering, control and communications technologies.
The initial response to these challenges and the Congressional legislation has been the latest generation of meters, namely the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (“AMI”) meters. Unlike AMR meters, AMI meters offer two-way communication between the meter and the utility company. Usage data is transmitted to the utility company, while messages are forwarded to the customer from the utility company. In addition, AMI meters can also control and/or monitor home appliances by communicating to the home appliances using a short range wireless protocol, such as Zigbee wireless protocol. Communication between the numerous AMI meters and the utility company creates a communications network topology. The AMI network topology is typically a mesh structure formed by each of the AMI meters in a particular area.
AMI meters are often referred to as “smart meters” since they can store data over a period of time for subsequent retrieval and transmission. However, the bandwidth of an AMI meter and its associated communications network are typically narrow, and therefore data updates to and from the utility company are slow. For example, data updates may be limited to being no faster than every 15 minutes. Thus, real-time load management is not available to the utility company. In addition, the ability for customers to receive and view real-time usage data also limits their understanding of actual usage patterns over a typical day. Thus, such narrow bandwidths preclude meaningful real-time management by the utility company as well as the comprehensive understanding of real-time customer usage so necessary to take advantage of the Congressionally-mandated variable pricing schedules.
Thus, although AMI meters are capable of storage and subsequent transmission of usage data over a range of periods of time, various usage, control and conservation challenges are left unaddressed.